I hope you weren't too attached to that shiny new HTC One M9, at least in its capacity as the company's top-of-the-line smartphone. Just a few weeks after revealing the new M9 at Mobile World Congress, HTC has taken the wraps off of the previously-leaked One M9+. This larger and more technically advanced phone one-ups its little brother with a bigger, sharper screen, a built-in fingerprint scanner, and the return of HTC's Duo camera design. It also swaps out the somewhat underwhelming Snapdragon 810 processor for a MediaTek Helio X10. That might explain why the phone has only been confirmed for release in China so far.

As you would probably expect, the One M9+ shares most of its basic physical design with the M9, including a metal unibody case, a front-facing 4-Ultrapixel camera, and HTC's distinctive "BoomSound" stereo speakers. Let's break down the relevant differences:

HTC One M9

Screen: 5" 1920x1080 LCD

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 810

(8 cores, 64-bit, 2.0GHz max on A57 cores)

Rear camera: single 20.7MP

HTC One M9+

Screen: 5.2" 2560x1440 LCD

Processor: MediaTek Helio X10

(8 cores, 64-bit, 2.2GHz max on A53 cores)

Rear camera: 20MP "Duo"

HTC hasn't released more extensive specifications like dimensions or storage space. You can bet that the M9+ is at least a bit larger than the original M9 thanks to the bigger screen and fingerprint scanner. There's also no word on exactly what kind of technology is in that scanner, though it looks similar to Samsung's sensor on the Galaxy S5 (which requires a swipe-up motion). For comparison, the M9 uses 3GB of RAM and 32GB on the base model of storage plus a MicroSD card slot - previous leaks indicated similar specs for the larger phone. The software on the M9+ is "Sense 7," which means it's running on top of Android 5.0 at the least. Colors include black, gold, and the gold-on-silver version so prominently advertised for the M9.

HTC also neglected to mention a price or date, even for the Chinese release. With that MediaTek processor and HTC's penchant for market-specific designs, it's entirely possible that we won't be seeing the M9+ outside of Asia, at least not in this configuration. That said, I wouldn't be surprised to see elements of the phone (especially the fingerprint scanner and larger screen) on future worldwide releases.

Comments

That MediaTek chip kills it. And oh, also that fugly fingerprint scanner sitting inbetween Boomsound. As if the front part of the M7 and M8 were not asymmetrical enough. I've also heard the GPU on MediaTek chips isn't that good, at least not as good as Adreno and obviously K1. So how do they expect to power a QHD screen with not so good processing power.
And what's up with the buttons? The top picture has got software buttons, while the bottom pictures show screenshots with no buttons at all.

Suicide_Note

With regards to the missing buttons, it's sloppy Photoshop work.

Narciso Neto

About those buttons, it looks like Asian market doesn't like on-screen buttons.
I guess HTC is trying to make a "bad surprise" when people first boot the device and see those buttons that wasn't on phone renders. ^^

suzu

Think about who features one home button, then think about all those copycats in Chinese market. The result is people in that region got so used to physic home button, and this is what you see on M9+

Andy Roid

Why does the MediaTek chip kill it? The Helio X10 [MT6795] performs better (on benchmarks at least) than the Snapdragon 810 - and without the insane temperatures and throttling issues.

Plus not only can it drive a QHD screeen, it can do it at 120Hz which is more than any other SoC on the market

It's less about the performance and more about the support. MediaTek based phones are usually stuck on older Android versions, and custom ROM development for them is also dead, for the majority of MediaTek powered devices.

Danny365

This is absolutely uninteresting. HTC failed to deliver this year.

Manol Chalakov

WTF HTC?!
Why have the Duo camera not on your flagship phone but only on it's bigger version (sold only in China)?
Also the fingerprint thingy + speakers + htc logo + big black bottom bezel = very VERY ugly.

jonathan3579

I wouldn't be surprised if this chipset outperforms the S810.

Amit_N

I just passed on this when I read 'MediaTek' in the title. Anyone should not settle for mediatek when they pay that premium for a damn phone.

Cute Cat

MediaTek isn't a bad chipset. Just because they make affordable chipsets doesn't mean their bad.

They are bad from a Custom ROM point of view yes.

HTC did thoroughly screwed up this year though. Let them face losses for all the stupid work they're doing.

neo905

Except Samsung lost 30% profit this qtr and 40% the previous qtr. HTC on the other hand has eaked out a profit 3 consecutive qtrs.

But don't let facts get in the ways of your argument.

suzu

That profit was almost nothing, not even 1%, the fact is HTC was still in a bad position last year, and this year could be worse.

neo905

A company the size of Samsung to have a loss in profit of 40% is far more significant than HTC. If you think otherwise then you have no idea what you are talking when you reference losses. There were no losses. There very well may be in the future for HTC but I heard the same thing last year and it didn't happen.

Jerry Rich

Samsung very big company still made big profit. HTC small company made teensy profit, no profit for them for rest of year. Bye, bye HTC.

Cute Cat

Are you retarded? I'm talking about the upcoming future. I don't care what profits HTC made, they don't deserve to keep that money after making shitty products this year.

Nah man I gotta give credit where it's due -- the M8 was actually a step up from the M7. The M8 2015 is not, compared to the M8 tho.

Suicide_Note

Sexy rear view, but an ugly dog from the front.

Narciso Neto

HTC just messed up their business for this year. Minor update to One series (their only phone that was selling "well") in a time that all major competitors bring something new to the table (iPhone 6 with bigger screens, Galaxy S6 with a gorgeous design, Moto X as well and upcoming G4 with new materials).

ProductFRED

More like HTC Galaxy S9+. I'm talking about the oval fingerprint sensor.

Back looks nice. Front looks awful. Bad enough the black bar, now they plop a fingerprint scanner on the front as well.

Aldrin Tauro

Feel like HTC really got shot in the face by Qualcomm's really bad 810. HTC can't make its own processors, can't rely on Exynos, and can't use anything else because of LTE. Not the best conditions for a comeback.